Gig workers form an integral part of the modern workforce. The gig economy has been expanding — gig workers are expected to constitute 4.1% of India’s total workforce by the financial year of 2029-30 — offering employment opportunities to workers seeking to shift from traditional modes of employment to emerging sectors in the economy. But such emerging sectors need some kind of regulatory shield. This is because profiteering commercial behemoths often fail to extend basic rights to gig workers. Challenging work conditions, arbitrary dismissals, reduced or inconsistent salaries and minimal negotiation rights are features of today’s gig economy. It is thus heartening that measures are being contemplated to mitigate the plight of gig workers by, among other steps, bringing them under the purview of a legal framework. Karnataka, to cite one example, recently introduced a draft legislation aiming to guarantee social security and welfare benefits to its gig force that numbers over three lakh. Bearing resemblances to the gig workers’ bill presented in 2023 by the then Congress government in Rajasthan, the Karnataka platform-based gig workers (social security and welfare) bill, 2024 has a slew of provisions — these are an improvement on the Rajasthan bill — that has the potential to address many loopholes. Among these provisions is the establishment of a welfare board that will help workers with insurance and other benefits as well as a database on the enlisters furnished to the government. Further, the bill mentions a welfare fund for the workers, penalties for aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy and Uber and, importantly, an exhaustive grievance redressal mechanism with the stipulation for aggregators to provide prior notice of 14 days before terminating a worker. These, if they were to be implemented, would be welcome interventions to ensure transparency and offer a more conducive working environment. One of the biggest challenges haunting the gig economy is the ambiguity in the definition of a relationship between the employee and the aggregator. The Karnataka bill’s clear delineation of gig workers and a mechanism for a formal contract between the platform companies and the workers attempt to plug the gaps.

This is not to suggest that all the challenges faced by gig economy workers have been resolved. The lack of deliberation on other pressing issues, such as meeting the costs for logistics and fuel as well as the enforcement of a minimum wage regime, underlines the need for further deliberations. Hopefully, Karnataka and other states will address these prickly issues in their finalised legislations.